Classic Two Wheels

17/01/2024

1996 was arguably the greatest ever year for Australian motorcycle racing, with two world champions -- Mick Doohan in 500s and Troy Corser in Superbikes -- and the emergence of a rider who looked like a once in a lifetime talent: Anthony Gobert. Sadly, it didn't work out for Anthony, and today comes news of his death. In this Classic Two Wheels tribute, we republish a January 1997 Racing Lines column by the magazine's legendary racing writer, Don Cox, who, though not usually given to superlatives, summed up Anthony's ability in one word: Awesome. (Photo by Gold and Goose)

If this isn’t a golden era for Australian international road racing, I don’t know what is. We have world champions in the premier Grand Prix (Mick Doohan) and Superbike (Troy Corser) cl…

05/10/2023

There's a lot of dubious advice on how to ride, offered by self appointed "experts." Our man Guido, though, has been there, done that, and knows exactly what to do if you find yourself in sphincter-puckering trouble mid corner...

Trusting the Tiger
Recently rescued from our archives: A Travels with Guido column on why you should trust the wheels underneath you:
AllMoto.com/travels370faith.htm

More Travels stories here:
AllMoto.com/travels.htm

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02/07/2023

One of our favourite blokes, Alf Wilson, has died.

Farewell Alf
Farewell Alf Wilson. He was one half of the dynamic duo of Alf and Maija who ran the Tintaldra Hotel on the Murray River near Corryong across 1989-2014, and has passed away.

The couple turned the pub into a destination for motorcyclists and classic car enthusiasts through genuine enthusiasm for the toys we love, sheer force of personality and generosity of spirit.

Read one of our stories on visiting the place:
AllMoto.com/travels239-breakfast-wilsons.htm

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20/05/2023

If I tried to ride an outfit it would be a pathetic and potentially painful experience for both of us, so I was very happy to let Stan, from Jasper Motorcycle Tours take Lee for a ride around beautiful Jasper NP. She loved it. There may be a Ural in my future now.

06/05/2023

Another gem from Guido at AllMoto. Full Two Wheels road test feature on Suzuki 250 strokers on the way.

Feisty Suzuki
Suzuki's mighty T20 250 two-stroke twin promised the old 'ton' or 100mph (160km/h) and a respectable 15.1sec quarter mile time – enough to give some bigger four-strokes a fright back in 1966.

Of course the company was soon to launch its big brother, the 500 Titan – see the profile here:
Allmoto.com/suzukit500.htm

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13/04/2023

"It was in the wide cabin of an F100 Ford that it happened, while we were plugging across Melbourne with some trail bikes in the back.
A Norton cut between the traffic lanes, leaned across our nose and then left us its throaty, rumbling exhaust note as it accelerated through the slow-moving cars. The Norton insignia was regimentally displayed across the back of the rider’s jacket.
The youngster, 10, sitting next to me, remarked to his older companion (a 14-year-old sub-­junior MX rider who was testing a small bike for me that day), “Norton is only a small Japanese factory isn’t it?”
In 1975, the British bike industry was being slaughtered by the Japanese, but true believers, like Two Wheels magazine's legendary Kel Wearne, still regarded the Norton Commando as the ultimate riding experience, a superbike with soul. In this June 1975 homage to the Commando, Wearne, a Norton owner several times over, is at his most persuasive and passionate. Enjoy "A Man and His Norton."
https://classictwowheels.com.au/a-man-and-his-norton/

06/04/2023

Forty years ago this week, there's a fair chance you were getting ready for the annual pilgrimage to the Easter Bathurst bike races. And in 1983, two of Australia's greatest riders, the late Andrew Johnson and Robbie Phillis, turned it on. Phillis won the Arai 500 on a bike he'd never ridden before, and Johnson, aboard the new Honda RS500R, smashed the 500 lap record en route to a win in the Australian 500 GP. Two Wheels racing writer Don Cox was in the pits for the weekend, and in this beautifully written piece brings you all the tension and drama as two great rivals duked it out on Mt Panorama. ABC Television also covered the meeting, and we've also included links to all the You Tube vids. Bathurst at Easter. Was there ever a better time...
https://classictwowheels.com.au/bathurst-1983-countdown-to-glory/

31/03/2023

"We were right in the guts of the state forest, and I saw a bunch of Japanese bikes up ahead. At this time it was things like Kawasaki 1000s. They didn’t see me. I came over a hill from miles back and thought ‘This will be good. I’ll drop inside the boys at speed and outrun ’em’.
Every time I do this I end up in hospital or in a police station."
Very sad to hear today of the death of Doug Mulray, one of the most likeable, wicked and funniest humans ever. He was Australia's first FM radio superstar during the 1980s on MMM, and a genuine motorcycle tragic. In this 1988 interview with Two Wheels magazine, "Uncle" Doug talks about his life long love affair with bikes and several of his wild rides. It's a wonder he made it this far, really. Vale, Doug Mulray.
https://classictwowheels.com.au/bike-nut-the-doug-mulray-interview/

“A Triumph 650 Bonneville was my second bike. My first – and it doesn’t delight me to tell you this – was a Honda 250. When I bought the Bonneville, I had to endure all the jibes in the world…

24/03/2023

According to a person who knows a lot about these things — Guido from AllMoto — we have Honda to thank for “presenting us with the prototype of the modern liquid-cooled litre-class weapon.” The bike in question is the 1992 Honda CBR900RR Fireblade, which offered the performance of its 1000cc-1100cc rivals in a package that weighed just 185kg and had the agility and responsiveness of a 600. The first update in 1994 was an even sharper, more track-focussed machine. Two Wheels’ gun roadtester at the time, Mick Matheson, summed it up nicely. “The Fireblade experience is awesome in its completeness,” he wrote. Here are his original Two Wheels roadtests, including track time on the 1992 model at Phillip Island and the 1994 update at Eastern Creek, plus Guido’s assessment of the early Blades as potential collectables.
https://classictwowheels.com.au/1992-and-1994-honda-cbr900rr-fireblade/

19/03/2023

The beating heart of any great magazine is its columnists, and for more that 20 years Two Wheels readers were treated, every issue, to three of the best: Grant Roff, John Rooth and Peter Smith. They didn’t just write about bikes, they wrote about living a motorcycle life, in a way that, well, when you read any of their columns, you just knew exactly what they were talking about, because they spoke of motorcycling’s universal truths. Here, Classic Two Wheels presents three of the big ones: Groff’s take on the joys, and perils, of riding with your mates; Rooth’s riff on Zen and Art of Getting Booked, and Mr Smith’s search for a nice girl on a motorcycle. Enjoy some of Australia's best motorcycle writing...
https://classictwowheels.com.au/groff-rooth-and-mr-smith/

12/03/2023

"The new Suzuki is an assassin intent on wiping out the entire superbike class so a new and dynamic order can take over. Its coup d’etat is complete and if the others want back in they’d better re-group, re-arm and get back here real quick before the Suzuki takes too much ground."
In this Classic Two Wheels sportsbike special, we revisit the magnificent 2005 Suzuki GSX-R1000 K5, with a couple of Two Wheels magazine's finest writers. The late Jeremy Bowdler does the honours at the bike's Eastern Creek launch, while Mick Matheson, with help from Kevin Magee, returns to the Creek, and hits the road, to see how the Gixxer stacks up against the other hotshots of the day: the MV Agusta F41000S, Yamaha's YZF R1, the CBR1000RR 'Blade and Kawasaki's wild ZX-10R. And in the best Two Wheels tradition, you also get full spex for every bike. Enjoy "Horsepower Heaven".
https://classictwowheels.com.au/2005-suzuki-gsx-r1000-k5/

01/03/2023

Interesting analysis here from Guido about prices at the recent Shannons online auction. It looks like the crazy sky high "Covid Tax" premiums on just about any older bike that qualifies for club plate rego might now be done with, and we're coming back to better affordabilty. This applies right across the used bike market. At the height of Covid there were about 8500 used machines advertised on bikesales.com.au. Today, as I write, there are 13,747, so it's no surprise that prices are falling in the wider market too. Post Covid, supply once more exceeds demand, and the Reserve Bank has also contributed, because when the mortgage payments go up to the pain threshold and life becomes squirrel grip tough on the financial front, the first things that get tossed are the toys. Cheap(er) Harley, anyone?
Guido looks at the Shannons results for a bunch of classics here, and if you're inspired to go hunting in a more friendly market, we've got the original Two Wheels magazine road tests on a few of them to whet your appetite, as follows...
Ducati 900 Hailwood Replica: https://classictwowheels.com.au/1979-1986-ducati-mike-hailwood-replica/
Suzuki GS1000: https://classictwowheels.com.au/1980-suzuki-gs1000s-honda-cb900fz-and-kawasaki-z1-r-mkii/
Kawasaki Z900: https://classictwowheels.com.au/1972-kawasaki-z1-and-1976-kawasaki-z900/
Honda 750 Four: https://classictwowheels.com.au/honda/

Bargains and blowouts at Shannons auction
There were some sharp buys and some blowout results at the latest event...see the story here:
AllMoto.com/shannons2302.htm

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27/01/2023

RRRRANNNGDANGDANGDANG...Ahh the sweet sound of the original two stroke widowmaker. Once worth about 53 cents used, they're now highly collectable says our man Guido. There's a link to the Classic Two Wheels test, too.

22/01/2023

Our experts ask "Do you really need to take the kitchen sink on tour?"

Are you missing the first step to managing your load for motorcycle overlanding? Listen to the latest ARR RAW episode to find out!

Link in comments below.

18/01/2023

This is what you call a collectable.

Lost Ninja
From our lost and found department: This pre-production 1984 Kawasaki GPz900R A1 somehow escaped the crusher and years later was rediscovered in a Kawasaki USA warehouse.

It has just a few miles on the odo from being moved around and the belief is it was first sent to the USA for a dealer conference. Decades later it was bought by a staffer and again did duty as a static display, this time for the Guggenheim Art of the Motorcycle show in the late 1990s.

Now the machine is coming up for sale via the giant Mecum auction that starts on January 24. See it, and the full story, here:
https://www.mecum.com/lots/LV0123-540404/1984-kawasaki-ninja-900-a1-pre-production-model/

See the GPz900R that was in our shed:
AllMoto.com/kawasaki-gpz900r-buy.htm

And the video here:
https://youtu.be/3KGy_wPtMAs

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24/12/2022

Smooth writing from our mate Guido at AllMoto, and a very nice Christmas present to yourself...

A Christmas wish
The cat's in charge and Hannibal has been cut loose – welcome to Christmas.
Here's our traditional festive season column:
http://www.allmoto.com.au/christmaswish.htm

Have a great break, folks.

Pic by Lou Martin

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24/12/2022

It's that time of year, when the roads are full of even more incompetent, incoherent and just plain crazy car drivers than usual. So here's a gentle reminder, from the late, great Two Wheels columnist Mr Smith, about the need to take care on the bike during the holiday season. In this column, from 1996, he encounters three drivers in one day, each of whom tries to kill him. So be afraid. As Smithy says: "I figure that the way about 98.5527 per cent of car manipulators drive, they failed playlunch at school and are also manipulating something else aside from the car."
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Classic Two Wheels. Enjoy Mr Smith's "Road Dills"
https://classictwowheels.com.au/road-dills/

Strutharama, class, I love riding motorbicycles. But every now and then I wonder about life as we almost know we imagine it on this azure orb which hangs in space where mankind makes his home. And …

23/12/2022

The ride of a lifetime awaits...

2019 Isle of Man TT motorcycle Shipping. We ship motorcycles overeas, Inluding motorcycle shipping to Europe, UK, Motorcycle to Greece and New Zealand and Spain

19/12/2022

Most motorcycle advertising is juvenile rubbish written by marketing cretins who wouldn't know a good bike from a hole in the ground. There have been a few exceptions, such as this, from BMW.

12/12/2022

"The year is One Nine Five Seven. In the USA the privations of WWII are fading in the glare of a monster economic boom. US manufacturing industry – honed and tempered in the cauldron of war – is spewing out cars, TVs, dishwashers and hi-fis like there is no tomorrow.
Elvis is alive, thin, twitchin’ and scaring the bejesus out of a zillion parents. Teenage girls still shed tears over the quick, bloody exit of James Dean, while in Detroit, General Motors whips the covers off one of the few cages worth owning — the glorious ’57 Chevrolet."
And Harley-Davidson, under attack from a new breed of fast, agile, lightweight British twins, decides to fight back with the XL Sportster.
Fifty years on, this Classic Two Wheels tribute to the Sporty features some of Australia's best motorcycle writers, including Geoff Seddon, Mr Smith and Stuart Kennedy, each with their unique take on this great motorcycle. We've included the 1972 XL998, the first Evo Sporty -- the 1986 XLH883, tested by Geoff Hall -- the superb 1986 XLH1100 and the 1992 XLH1200.
"The Sporty rattles, shakes, graunches, runs out of petrol and provides face-splitting grins like no other two-wheeled device on the planet." Ain't that the truth. Enjoy this collection of love letters to the Harley-Davidson Sportster.
https://classictwowheels.com.au/1972-1992-harley-davidson-sportster/

11/12/2022

News Flash: The Wing is now a desirable motorcycle. Get one while they're still affordable, says Guido...

30/10/2022

We'll do a Classic Two Wheels special on the 1100/1150 GS series soon.

13/10/2022

Seventy-plus big ones for an admittedly schmick GS resto. Gott in Himmel, Fritz! Guido tries to make sense of it all, and you can also read Two Wheels magazine's test of the original at https://classictwowheels.com.au/1981-bmw-r80g-s/

13/10/2022

"If you are into smooth, high-speed riding without the sheer gut-wrenching power of the big Japanese machines, then you have to turn towards the European sportsters. Punting the Replica hard, close to the limits of its ability, is daring the senses to push the brain into accepting fear. The scenery becomes a blur, you achieve tunnel vision, focusing on the road, feeling the wind tugging at the sleeves, the rise and fall of the lone Conti muffler relaying the engine’s passion to you.
At $6499, the Mike Hailwood Replica is not a cheap motorcycle; but then again it’s one of a dying breed — a true enthusiast’s machine, not a techno trendy whizzbang. If you want to touch the wind and find your soul, see your Ducati dealer." (Geoff Hall, Two Wheels, July 1984).
In this Classic Two Wheels special feature, we take a deep dive into the Mike Hailwood Replica, with Ian Falloon's model by model guide, roadtests from Two Wheels magazine on the 1984 900 and the 1985 Mille, plus a superb Two Wheels story by Jim Greening on how, in 1978, Mike Hailwood and Steve Wynne developed the winning racebike that conquered the Isle of Man and started it all.
https://classictwowheels.com.au/1979-1986-ducati-mike-hailwood-replica/

05/10/2022

https://www.novafm.com.au/win/win-a-2000-fuel-voucher-during-motorcyclist-awareness-month/

27/09/2022

October is Motorcyclist Awareness Month. We’re aiming to raise awareness of motorcyclists amongst drivers, and the variety of ways the community can help to protect each other and share the road safely.

Throughout the month we’ll be highlighting ways to get involved, how we can look out for one another, help keep motorcyclists safe and the benefits that brings to our communities across Victoria.

We hope you’ll come along for the ride with us! 👋

18/09/2022

Guido sheds a tear for those bikes he shouldn't have sold. Hey, we've all let a good one (or two) get away...

Flashback: Regrets
Pondering the ghosts of bikes that have left the shed...see the story here:
AllMoto.com/travels307regrets.htm

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16/09/2022

Great work...

Adventure Bike Truth - Marketing V RealityI take a look at what the marketing people tell us about adventure bikes and compare that to reality.Video footage ...

13/09/2022

06/08/2022

Our man Guido from AllMoto is Livin' in the Seventies. Read the story here

Flashback: That Seventies Show
AllMoto.com/travels364-70s.htm

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